Jammed Middle Seat Belt

[Lone Wolf]

Mine was the same when upright at first! Fold it down to slack the tension and then walk away.
Try again another time.
Good luck

 

[Jimmi]

Update on this, Volkswagen can’t free the belt up so I need a new one to be fitted, which is currently on backorder and will take up to 3 weeks to be delivered. They can’t loan me a rear seat so my £40k 5 seater kombi is now a 4 seater.

 

[Ellz]

I'm just in the process of taking mine apart. It looks like the seat belt mechanism is one of the ball bearing type ones, which when folding the seat flat will mean the mechanism will lock, as the ball bearing rolls and lifts a lever to lock the mechanism (like if you crashed the ball bearing moves forward in the decel and locks). The best way to free it I've found is to unbolt the other end of the seat belt from underneath the seat unit. This lets you get the seat upright and then un jam the mechanism. It seems a silly design for a seat that folds flat. Playing around with the mechanism without the ball bearing in and it still locks when pulling the seat belt rapidly so think I might do away with the ball bearing.
Currently trying to research if there is maybe a different mechanism for the folding seats to the fixed upright seats.

 

[Ellz]

On second thoughts, I think a better solution is to get a seat belt button and put so the seat belt has lots of slack when in its rested position, this should mean when folding the seat up and down it won't go tight enough to lock in place before the seat back is in the upright position

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[Ellz]

On second thoughts, I think a better solution is to get a seat belt button and put so the seat belt has lots of slack when in its rested position, this should mean when folding the seat up and down it won't go tight enough to lock in place before the seat back is in the upright position

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[Robertspaw]

Did you get any joy on how best to do this? I’ve got a similar problem and it’s doing my head in!

 

[Chuck Buckles]

Did you get any joy on how best to do this? I’ve got a similar problem and it’s doing my head in!

I’ve had this with mine twice. I have 2 + 1 seat and this happens with the double. First time I folded the back flat it got stuck and I jiggled it backwards and forwards until it came free. Since then I have always just a crock clip or market clamp to hold the belt slack before folding it flat.
That was until the second time I forgot the clip. Did I regret that? Oh yes. Seat stuck flat down. Much jiggling didn’t work. Have you in frustration for a couple days.
Decided I wouldn’t be beaten. Popped the plastic shroud off the top and fed the belt a bit further in hoping it would free up. Nope it just got so far in it swallowed the button that stops the belt going all the way in.
More fighting and wiggling I figured there must be a gravity fed issue here so removed seat from floor turned it upside down, swore a lot shook bench up and down whilst wiggling belt in and out and eventually it slipped far enough to free the bottom and rescue belt button.

 

[djanolan]

I had the same problem. Centre seatbelt stuck, obviously the Reverse Lock. Tried all the solutions suggested in this and other threads to no avail. BUT it wasn't the Reverse Lock! There is a small plastic stud (obviously designed to stop the belt retracting too far). This had gone past the plastic housing. As Lone Wolf suggested above, wiggling the belt side to side (with a bit of force) freed this up back past the housing. Voila, all sorted.

 

[milner993]

I just picked up my new to me kombi and I've got this issue, hoping it frees up easily but reading this thread I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[Leemant6]

Hi, just wanted to let you know I had the same issue and got a seatbelt button as suggested by user Ellz ( a few posts back )
I had to take my seatbelt off completely, pain in the ar*e...
So I bought some seatbelt buttons of eBay. I had to take the seatbelt out completely, hopefully you won't have to as that's a bit of a pain but only took about 15 mins. Once out I managed to release the belt and refit it.
Before I folded the seat again I then fitted one of the buttons about an inch or so from the top bracket where the belt goes in at the front, if you follow? This stop's the belt from going back in when folding the seat and stopped it tightening up. Now it never sticks anymore when I fold the seat. I've attached an image and it cost me £2 for two.
Let me know if you want anymore info or a photo of my seatbelt.

 

[T6Paul]

My tip to prevent this (after suffering from a stuck seatbelt several times) is to pull the middle seatbelt across and plug it in before folding the seat down. This gives more slack when folding the seat back up and stops the seatbelt getting stuck!

 

[vanlifemike]

Hi, had the same issue after removing seat. Had to remove seat cover etc to get working for MOT last year, total ball ache. Happened again after removing seats over festive period, and after reading above comments and playing about this might help; Once seat replaced and upright, pull cord to lie flat but only tilt forward so that seat back is vertical (similar to a previous comment but with seat in situ) and pull seat belt; seems to work each time I re-fit seats now. Hope that saves someone time.

Did try your tip T6Paul which works but have to remember to release buckle and hold belt to get the seat upright again.

 

[Steve_743]

Here’s a little vid I made that may help those with jammed seatbelts. My first contribution to this forum actually! This was on a middle passenger seatbelt but useful for all seatbelts.

 

[LabMaze]

My resolution